


A solution?

by Lionessinthedark



Series: Star Trek into darkness.....a bit different [11]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Khan is not a bad guy after all, M/M, Post-Star Trek: Into Darkness, Star Trek: Into Darkness, T'hy'la
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-28
Updated: 2015-06-28
Packaged: 2018-04-06 13:42:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4223856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lionessinthedark/pseuds/Lionessinthedark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An explanation is made......but those Orion gladiator-spheres are still in Khan, and they turn him into a ticking bomb.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter one

From the previous part:

_“The truth is” said Scotty: “that he had been a coldblooded calculating bastard all along who had been dragging us all around! Everything he had said....every action he has made..... have been done to make us believe that he was a bloody tame beast and then....wham......he would have killed you two.....seized power over the Enterprise and killed us all in the end!” ___

__“No!” said Spock: “no...for a brief moment...a few minutes... I believed that he could be like that. When we first met, I believed that he was a monster. But not anymore! I’ve mind-melded with him....he had been living inside me. He would not have been able to hide such plans....such an evilness for me. And remember his actions....what he had done for us. Saved our lives....when he didn’t have too! No...something is off. And there must logically be an explanation besides him being a monster!”_ _

__“I agree.....there are so many lies in what our Khan said to that madman, that the rest of it could have been lies too!” said Bones._ _

__“I’ve been in his mind too. And this is not the mind of the Khan....of the Noonien...I know” said Jim: “we must hurry to the brig and ask him, before we jump to conclusions”_ _

__The other officers looked at Bones, Jim and Spock with a sudden understanding, but it was Uhura who asked: “The mind-meld...Spock...was he your lover? That part....that was not a lie? But......you and I had....I mean....you and I......we were.....”_ _

__And Scotty murmured: “Well there.....I tell ya.....there is quite a surprise coming up!”_ _

__Jim straightened his back: “Yes....that part was not a lie. It is difficult not to fall in love with someone who had saved your life more than 10 times.....and a person where you think that you had been very unjust against and a person with so many wonderful character-features. I have to admit when I did hear that recording, I doubted him for just a few seconds. Those lies he told were quite convincing, but having been in his mind......that mind was not the mind that he showed down on that planet together with his browner self!”_ _

__“Oh my god” now it was Chekov and Uhura that looked at each other and Chekov spoke:”He had ze captain compromized!”_ _

__“I beg your pardon! And I’m still your Captain and I’m most certainly not compromised!!!. If Khan in any way had an influence on me then it is because of his actions and his personality shown under a mind-meld......That is not something that can be tampered with. Now we all go down to the brig and ask him for an explanation. I don’t doubt that there is a really good one.....and a true one!”_ _

__On the way to the brig Scotty asked Bones what lies Khan had told._ _

__“First.....I’ve seen his old scans and the internal scars. If he had lied about something it would have been that he didn’t tell us everything Marcus and his men did to him! Second....there is no way to trigger a Pon Farr...not even with chemicals in the food. Believe me....Vulcan scientists have tried for centuries. And third.......his attempt to kill himself in the brig was genuine. He could in no way have calculated that we would get there in time. His heart had stopped and even for him...too long time without oxygen would still kill a lot of brain cells and even with his nano-robots there are limits of what they can repair. If we hadn’t got there in time the security would just have believed that he was meditating like he sometimes had done for hours...and he would have been gone for good. And fourth.....”_ _

__“And fourth...” Spock interrupted : “..there is nothing written down anywhere about my family’s ability to perform the Fal-Tor-Pan ritual. We were not “worthy” so why mention us?”_ _

__As they had spoken, they had taken the turbo-lifts and had arrived in the brig section. Jim went over to the brig that contained Khan. Khan was lying on the couch....naked but for a pair of pants and he was wounded! There was blood on the white floor and wounds on Khan’s body._ _

__Jim just lifted his eyebrow and looked at Scotty: “Why is Khan almost naked...and wounded?!”_ _

__“Well...one of the guards got a bit overenthusiastic when we caught him! And we were afraid that he might have weapons hidden in his clothes” explained Scotty._ _

__“Caught him!?” said Jim rather coldly......”I understand that he returned voluntarily!“_ _

__“I did” said Khan and with his usual feline grace....even if he was wounded....he rose from the couch and came to the force-field-wall._ _

__“Do you need medical help?” asked Bones and gave Scotty quite a glance: “we do not usually leave wounded people unattended in the brigs!”_ _

__“It is fine...I’m healing. The wounds do not bleed anymore. And you know how much a bit of blood can smear. I just wonder why you all got so pissed off on me, Scotty. I didn’t hide my attentions and I really feel I had just reasons to do what I did!”_ _

__Jim looked at Khan: “Well we are here to hear your explanations. But they better be god since you scared the hell out of us!”_ _

__Khan...puzzled: “Scared the hell out of you? I was not the one who shot you and threatened to drill a hole through your skull and brain!”_ _

__“No” said Jim: “but you told us yourself that you shouldn’t be allowed outside the brig because any random word could trigger your spheres!”_ _

__“True enough” answered Khan: “but I had to go....Believe me. I had very good reasons. But I still do not understand the harshness. I told you everything!”_ _

__“No you didn’t” said Scotty: “the transmission was more than partly destroyed by that thunderstorm...the interference didn’t put more through that a few blasted words in the beginning! What was we supposed to believe?.....You fled......took one of the best shuttles...the one capable of warp.....and then the only thing we heard from you is that you joined forces with that browner you, you call “brother” and suddenly you were threatening to kill us all.....no wonder we believed that you had gone mad or that you were a bastard and had been that all along!!”_ _

__Khan just looked at them: “Oh my...I have really been digging my own grave here.....OK. From the beginning then: I have had lots of spare-time in this...or the other brig....and I found that something wasn’t right with that Vorta-woman that agreed to make clones of me. I can read Vorta-language by now and found out about a version of me living on Motaka. It must have been a version12 or 13 since version 11 was a total failure and they all died as children in fits of rage. I dug deeper and found out that the “Khan Noonien Singh” on Motaka was indeed the “Khan Noonien Singh” from your history-books. The one that ruled Asia and Middle East back on Earth. The countries... not my islands. He wasn’t insane then....he was the exception: the best of tyrants. He didn’t commit genocide and allowed normal humans in high positions in his society. His wife was human. But the others ruling the rest of the world must have been versions 12....more emotional unstable, crueler and with one big problem, just like version 13. Their nano-robots were far more advanced than mine. Could heal bodies almost immediately, but the robots could not duplicate themselves fast enough. What good does it do to have advanced robots if you never have enough?"_ _

__Khan continued: "And that was why that Vorta-woman agreed on making clones of me. As she sent pictures of me back to her “Khan”, he recognized me and saw a chance to get more of my “good” robots. That is why one of the clones “died”...it was “Khan” who needed those robots. He had killed his own augments just to be able to live longer! A few years, days, hours. I don’t know when he became insane......before he fled from Earth? As he was caught by the Orion slave-traders? That is by the way Orion gladiator-spheres that he did put in me and the other clones. Was Khan insane when he was sold to the Vortas? I do not know but I know what I now read about his doings and plans that he was truly insane! And the thought that he could make Vorta-soldiers with my bodily abilities or even clone a mixed body of my and his DNA: my intelligence..... and no... I’m not bragging: I now that I am more intelligent and faster and “better” even amongst my own.....and this added to his insanity, his ruthlessness.......a nightmare. He had to be stopped!”_ _

__“How did you get out of the brig?” asked Scotty: “and how the hell did ya survive that blast on Motaka?”_ _

__“Hm....I had the blue-prints of the USS Enterprise model NCC-1701 when I was forced to make the “Vengeance”. Thus I knew that the brigs had weak points in the bathroom behind the shower-wall. I smashed the wall and got in between construction walls there. But it is very tight in there...between those two walls and not much oxygen and I left small bits and pieces of myself in there, as I squeezed myself through. You, Spock, had made me give a solemn vow so I couldn’t send myself on a suicide-mission. So I found a solution: I borrowed one of the clones.....clone β. I have learned enough from you, Spock, to duplicate some of my “Katra”, my personality and memories into that rather empty brain of the β-clone and I borrowed one of the laboratories and made both small bombs to arm “Beta”s body and to make detonators to the places on Motaka. It wouldn’t require that much to blow those buildings into the sky as the “Khan version 13” apparently was so paranoid that he himself had armed the buildings and the Palace. I just needed a sort of “time pencil” to start the explosions.”_ _

__“How did you persuade the other clone to volunteer for such a suicide-mission?” asked Jim a bit worried....was Khan after all not the kind and caring man he had learned to know?_ _

__Khan made a small smile: “I offered him that we could change places. That I would duplicate as much of myself as I was able to into him, thus keeping my vow to Spock. After all I’m just a clone too and not so different from the other clones except from my “Katra”. Being...well....actually “me” he was just as stupid as I am and refused. He was the one you did hear on the surface of Motaka. I was in the shuttle and he had taken the small vessel that the shuttle had in its cargo room. And he landed close to the Palace after having armed the other buildings on Motaka, the buildings that contained my DNA and the clones that the other Khan had made. I had to be totally sure that none of my DNA remained on Motaka in case clone Beta didn’t succeed in killing “Khan”. I’m sorry that I had to kill a lot of Vortas, but it was too dangerous to have a healthy and insane “Khan version13” on the loose in the Dominion and those Vortas working in the Palace and in the Plants, well... they were his loyal followers and could have done so much harm afterwards.”_ _

__Khan took a deep breath: “I recorded all my doings from the time where I left the brig. Not pictures...just sound and that was the first part that I started to transmit to you as we, clone Beta and I, had warped to Motaka. Apparently none of this came through because of the thunder-storm on Motaka and then I started transmitting directly...both from the shuttle and from the equipment on clone Beta. Unfortunately for me it was only the part where clone Beta “lied up hill and down dale” as fast as he could just to make “Khan” feel safe and secure, that came through...and as soon I heard and saw the explosions and the equipment on clone Beta was destroyed, thus indicating that he was blown to pieces together with my browner self, I returned to USS Enterprise. I admit that I got quite surprised that you were so pissed off on me, because I had left the brig. On the other hand it is an abysmal disappointment to me that you all, whom I’ve worked closely together with for more than 2 years, did choose to believe that I indeed was a monster and not the Khan that you knew. I took one small step outside the line and you saw only the lies and believed them to be the truth! One failed transmission and I was a monster in your minds. I can only understand it like that that the kindness you have shown me, the trust you have had in me has been nothing but surface and deep down you all still believe me to be the monster you saw, as I was pushed beyond my limits by Marcus!”_ _


	2. Chapter 2

They could all hear the sadness in Khan’s voice: “Please....would you leave me alone?” and he turned away from them now facing the wall in the brig. His back straight as a ramrod again and his fists clenched by his side.

Scotty, Chekov and Uhura looked as if they were going to say something, but Jim shook his head and pointed at the turbo-lift and they left together with most of the security personal.

“Do you want us to leave too?” asked Spock.

But Khan didn’t answer just turned around and went to the force field: “You made me make a solemn vow, Spock. I would like you to allow me to take it back. There is no point in continuing this miserable life of mine. Making clones of me.....moving my Katra. For what reason? When I to everybody am nothing but that monster you saw more than 3 years ago. No matter what my actions later have shown....No matter what I say..... no matter what I do.....and now I’m even a ticking bomb, where those blasted spheres can pop every moment turning me into a raving mad beast...... You should have let me die!”

The last sentence was almost shouted and Khan had knelt and banged his fist into the floor in the brig, making a big dent.

It sent shivers down the spines on Spock and Jim as those words were very close to the words Khan had spat out as he crushed Marcus’ skull.

But Bones took one step closer to the brig: “Khan....for what it is worth. I never believed any of the lies from the clone. I know you. I’ve worked together with you for many months. I’ve seen your injuries and your scars. I care about you and I don’t want you dead. On the contrary.....I’ve risked my career and my reputation to clone you so we could have you back and we’ll find a solution to pop those spheres in a safe way. Jim had had an idea and we are going to follow that. So please....allow us to try to help you!”

Spock and Jim came closer too and it was Spock who spoke: “You are my T’hy’la, our T’hy’la. I can’t take my demand back until we have tried everything possible to remove those spheres. We can go somewhere else and have you cloned again......and I can contain your “Katra” again if necessary...but please Khan. Don’t make me take that demand back. I love you!”

“I love you too” said Jim and shut down the force-field, came close to the limp form kneeling on the floor of the brig and embraced him: “I love you, my Noonien...and I knew that those words from the clone couldn’t be anything but lies. I know you!”

Bones watched as the 3 men were kneeling together in the brig that still had a lot of Khan’s blood smeared on the floor. He wondered how that distrust that the crew...or at least the officers of the USS Enterprise....had shown towards Khan, could be erased...softened. He could understand if Khan never wanted to work together again with Scotty, Uhura, Chekov and Sulu, who had given the orders, both to threaten Khan and humiliate him.

“You better leave me” murmured Khan: “I’m still too dangerous to you!”

They all got on their feet again and Jim and Spock left the brig. Khan dressed himself in the clothes that Bones had one of the guards to bring. As the force-field was re-established Spock looked at Khan and asked: “Would you be very offended if I asked permission to mind-meld with you?”

Khan smiled and answered in such a low voice that only Spock could hear it: “But my T’hy’la....here? On the floor in front of all the guards?”

Spock had turned into the nicest shade of green: “No....I didn’t mean.....I didn’t imply.......just a mind-meld!!!”

Khan smiled: “That was for doubting me...even just for a few seconds. And no...I wouldn’t be offended. You are afraid that the spheres have altered something, right?”

“Yes”

And Khan stepped closer to the force-field and the movable opening was placed in front of his head. Spock opened it so much that they both could have both their arms through it: “You still trust me!” said Khan.

“I can’t do anything else. I just need to see if the spheres have altered anything.”

They touched each other’s head simultaneously. Spock smiled: “now I’ll see if I have been a good teacher!”

“The best!” was Khan’s answer and there it was...the connection. So much stronger than Spock had been used to when it was only him making the connection. He could see Khan’s mind laid out in front of him. As Khan would say: difficult to explain when the language doesn’t have words for it. Not even Vulcan had enough words for how the mind-meld felt, what it looked like. “A landscape” could be a suitable picture of how it was. A landscape with mountains of emotions, with valleys of grief, with forests of more hidden emotions.

  
Spock looked carefully at Khan’s mind but found no differences from before. He sighed of relief.

“I have passed your test then?” asked Khan with a smile.

“Passed! We’ll contact you as soon as we know something. Jim left for the bridge to follow a trace. I think we’ll know something before tomorrow” said Spock and actually smiled back.

Then he left for the turbo-lift leaving Khan alone with the original 5 person security-personal.

One of the men came closer to the brig: “Commander Khan, would you like to go to a more pleasant brig?”

“Oh, hello. Hm that would be nice but I sort of ruined it. Breaking through the wall in the bathroom!”

“Not that one, sir. One of the others. We took the liberty to move all your stuff to another brig while the other one was repaired, when you had gone. But please behave, sir. We are running out on brigs if you keep up destroying them, sir” The young man was smiling and Khan recognized him.

“Thank you, ensign Horlub. But how do we manage that? I’m not allowed outside the brig?”

“A commander can order that...and you being a commander.......”

“Fine.....but you’ll have to keep your mouths shut. I don’t want a word to trigger my spheres and have your phasers set to kill and your fingers on the triggers. They wouldn’t kill me and it would buy you time to get into safety. Is that understood?”

“Yes sir”  
__________________________  
So that is why Jim, Bones and Sulu found Khan in another brig as they came down to look for Khan.

Jim went over to the force-field: “Khan.....the Vortas have contacted us because of the events on Motaka!”

Khan rose and came to the “glass”-wall: ”I see...well you better arrange for my surrender then...”

Sulu: “What makes you say that, commander?”

Khan decided that even if Sulu had treated him badly ..again....Khan could at least be polite and answer even if he didn’t want to see Sulu ever again if he could help it: “Commander Sulu. I killed more than 500 Vortas on Motaka. Surely you do not believe that they are just inviting me for tea?”

“What do you expect to happen?” asked Jim.

“I don’t know” answered Khan: “prison....death-sentence? I do not know enough about Vortan courts and justice. But I’ll not be the one to break the new and fragile connection between the Dominion and the Federation. If their anger can be saturated with my surrender, I think you should be grateful.”

Jim turned towards Sulu: “Do you see now, commander? That is how he is and that is how he has been the whole time! Commander Khan can be trusted....as soon we get those blasted Orion gladiator spheres out of him”!

Khan: “I don’t understand?”

Jim: “The Vortas did not want your head on a platter, Khan. They contacted us to say “thank you”. The Khan on Motaka had been a serious problem for them for years. But his loyal followers that you almost killed everyone of, prevented them from doing anything serious about him. And then he got ill and they didn’t regard him as a serious threat anymore. I’m sorry for making you believe that they wanted revenge. But I had to show commander Sulu that you would put our safety before your own life. Like you have done before...”

Sulu came over to the force-field: “I offer my deepest apology. I should never have doubted you, commander!”

Khan just looked at him: “No you shouldn’t have, commander Sulu!”

_____________________

As Jim and Sulu had left the brig area one of the security men came over to the brig: “What is that about “Orion-gladiator-spheres” if I may ask, commander Khan, or is it a secret?”

“Oh ensign Horlub. No it is not a secret. I’ve got them in me. That is why I have to stay in the brig. I’m too dangerous if they “pop”!”

“I see, sir. A friend of mine, one who worked on one of the ships that Nero destroyed, he told me that his cousin’s friend...”

“We are a bit far out now...aren’t we ensign Holub?”

“Yes,sir....but I still have to get to the point. That cousin’s friend was an Orion and had been a gladiator. When the family paid the ransom to free him he had some of those spheres in him.....”

“Now I’m listening!”

“Yes sir, I knew you would. And they took him to Betazed to have him healed...”

The ensign didn’t have time to tell more as Spock and Bones came out of the turbo-lift together, walked to Khan’s brig and Spock said: “Jim found it! He could remember something about an Orion working on one of the Starfleet vessels. There is a planet where they can remove those spheres. We are traveling to.....”

Khan interrupted: “Betazed!!”

Spock: “How did you know?! You are not a mind-reader without touching and I didn’t know before now!”

But Khan just smiled and pointed at ensign Horlub: “He told me! But what excuse are Jim going to use this time as we are criss-crossing the galaxy?”

Bones replied: “We have all been working so hard that we need a leave...and Betazed is such a lovely planet. The Star-fleet has granted everybody a special leave of more than a month’s duration!”

Spock: “And everybody is going to take turns on the ship of only a few days. We all need this holiday and we are going to ask the Betazoids to help you.....even if we are going to empty our savings accounts!”

“A shame, actually” said Khan: “that they know about aluminum. Despite the betrayal....you got those clones for a fair price!”

Bones: “Yeah....even if we got a bit more than we asked for!”

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place in the universe of "Star Trek...alternate reality". The biggest difference is that "my" Khan's background-story is different. That might be a bit confusing if you haven't read from the beginning. The series are supposed to be read in chronological order. In the end (and that is not quite written yet, not all of it) you will understand why Khan's background story differs from the one in the movie.
> 
> I do not own the characters.  
> And I excuse if there a major grammatical failures. English is not my native tongue.


End file.
